Lionel Richie Estranged Wife's Lush Life

MARCH 2--Five months after filing for divorce from Lionel Richie, the singer's estranged wife has just weighed in with a whopping--and remarkably detailed--demand for at least $300,000 in monthly support payments.

According to Diane Richie, 37, the couple has led an "extraordinary extravagant lifestyle" and that she had "no limit on what I could spend," according to a Los Angeles Superior Court declaration filed last week. The Richies, who wed in December 1996 and have two young children, live in a $40 million Beverly Hills mansion, with its 30 rooms spread over 18,000 square feet.

There are plenty of other costs Richie listed--like $20,000 annually for plastic surgery and her nine-year-old son's $125,000 boarding school tuition--but TSG will let you discover those chestnuts.

According to Richie, she began dating the pop star in 1984, when they met at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (she was an 18-year-old dancer). Since those teen days, the performer "paid my rent and/or mortgage, purchased automobiles for me, and regularly bought me expensive gifts," recalled Richie. (9 pages)